


Actions Speak Louder

by HashtagLEH



Series: MerMay 2020 [4]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Human Bucky Barnes, Human Steve Rogers, Hurt Tony Stark, I'm desensitized and don't know what counts as normal, M/M, MerMay, Merperson Natasha Romanov, Merperson Pepper Potts, Merperson Rhodey, Merperson Tony Stark, Mild Sexual Content, Multi, Pirate Bucky Barnes, Pirate Captain Steve Rogers, Pirates, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Three guesses why they become pirates, Violence, but it's not majorly graphic, but just to be careful there it is, but you can probably pick out who is who, hence the lack of archive warning for it, mermaid au, pretty minor but maybe not, so I tagged them anyway, some of these characters are never called by name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:41:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24195292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/HashtagLEH
Summary: He didn’t understand everything that the humans said. Not at first. He had been around them enough, and interpreted enough from their shipwrecks that he knew a few words, but when they were speaking it was completely different. He was also certain that his tailed form was hindering his understanding, because he was pretty sure that he had understood more thanthiswhen he beached himself to watch the humans before.The ones who had pulled him from the water were important people, he could tell. The man in charge of the ship – someone with blond hair and flat white teeth that had the malevolent grin of any shark – seemed very gleeful at his capture.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, pre- James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: MerMay 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1724359
Comments: 10
Kudos: 198





	Actions Speak Louder

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Pirates Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12979827) by [NotEvenCloseToStraight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotEvenCloseToStraight/pseuds/NotEvenCloseToStraight). 



> I have been quite sick for a while now, so I'm unfortunately not going to get a mermaid fic up every day in May (though you probably guessed that, considering I haven't posted in several days now lol). However, I'm still going to do what I can! So keep following the series because there will be at least one more fic before the month is out haha. 
> 
> Also, this fic is only very loosely inspired by "Pirates Heart", but I'm fairly liberal with giving even slight credit to people, hence the official attachment. I've been thinking about mermaids because you know, May, but I've also been rereading her fic so I'm also thinking about pirates, which is how the combination came about in here. Also, Stuckony is my absolute favorite ship of them all and her fic has that too, so it's basically the whole package lol. Anyway, if you haven't read that fic I would highly recommend. It's a nice long read and with quarantining in place there is no better time to read the long ones. ;)

The thing was, Tony was something of a scientist. He loved investigating new things within his reach and even without. He often roped Rhodey into exploring the remains of what others left behind, destroyed or not. He liked to explore the bottom of the waters, in the sunken ships of time past, and create things with their leftovers of destruction. He liked to see the artifacts and try to come up with stories attached to them.

He had always been curious about the things outside the wide reach of the water, and as he grew older he had gone closer and closer, sometimes even beaching himself on a rock near the shore of some islands where he could watch land dwellers go about their lives. He wondered at the things he had found in the ships, and how they were used by these humans, and watching them often answered these kinds of questions. Rhodey wouldn’t go as far as he did to the surface, citing the need to remain safe in the water, but he also recognized that he couldn’t do much to keep Tony from his own solo explorations.

His years of exploration though had made him foolish, and complacent in his safety. He had drawn too close to one of the larger ships on the surface, and one of them had seen him. And unfortunately, that one had one of the weapons that could shoot objects at a farther distance, and had swiftly pointed it at him without raising an alarm at anyone else. Before Tony had even thought to dive into the deep, metal was ripping into his ribs and his blood was spilling into the water. Amazingly, he worried more about sharks catching the scent of his blood at that time than he did about the humans coming closer to him.

But the pain was too much, and he needed the muscles in his chest to swim, and those were damaged and flared with fiery pain with every movement. Before long, he was unable to escape from the nets that the humans had tossed down to catch him, and everything was dark and blurry anyway so he didn’t even care too much as he was drawn closer to the surface.

His head broke the surface of the water, and his lungs began to work automatically as his gills closed. Normally he could brace for the shock of it, but with the pain already tearing through him, it was too much, and the darkness won out.

***

He didn’t understand everything that the humans said. Not at first. He had been around them enough, and interpreted enough from their shipwrecks that he knew a few words, but when they were speaking it was completely different. He was also certain that his tailed form was hindering his understanding, because he was pretty sure that he had understood more than _this_ when he beached himself to watch the humans before.

The ones who had pulled him from the water were important people, he could tell. The man in charge of the ship – someone with blond hair and flat white teeth that had the malevolent grin of any shark – seemed very gleeful at his capture. That didn’t mean that he was kept in good conditions, though.

Tony hadn’t been too aware of everything in the first few days of his capture. He figured out later that he had been on the brink of death for those days, some healer-type human the only face he saw with any kind of clarity. He thought the healer might be kind. He wore circular pieces of glass in front of his eyes – Tony wondered if they helped him to see. He didn’t look like he was very happy any time the blond man he called “Commodore” came and asked questions, but he also didn’t do much more than clean out and bandage the wound in Tony’s chest. Tony let him, once he figured out that the human was trying to help, but he also didn’t attempt to communicate or beg for release.

It must have been in those first few days that the ship had acquired the tank he was in – either that, or they’d had it for a while for who knew what purpose. It did smell a bit like crustaceans, so maybe it had been used to keep them in. Tony knew that humans ate some of the food that merpeople did, but it did grate on him that he was in the same tank as _food_ had once been kept in.

They didn’t change out the water in the tank, either, which got more dangerous as his blood seeped into it and made it murky. Tony tried keeping his head above water as much as possible, forcing air into his lungs rather than the more natural-feeling water through his gills, because he didn’t want to poison himself.

Other than the healer and the “Commodore”, no one else came into the dark cabin where Tony was kept. He itched at it, because if he hadn’t been injured he surely would’ve had the strength to fight to get out of there, but as it was he was helpless. He wished he’d listened to Rhodey, and not gone so close to the humans. Look where it got him.

It must have been many days before there was any change. Another man came into the room, this one younger than the Commodore, with blue-grey eyes and dark hair. He was certainly a lot more attractive than the Commodore. Not that Tony was looking.

The new man and the healer exchanged a few quiet words over by the door, and Tony tilted his head, looking out over the water but carefully keeping any interest from creeping into his expression. He didn’t know if the new man was going to be kind like the healer or greedy like the Commodore. He didn’t want to get his hopes up that he might have another friendly face.

After a brief, slightly argumentative discussion, the man looked up and came toward Tony, expression a bit wary. Tony squinted his eyes at him, carefully holding himself in place and not cowering.

The man stopped just inside reaching distance from Tony, but Tony kept his hands to himself until he was given a reason to attack.

“Hello,” the man said, a word that Tony recognized but hadn’t been said to him once even in his several days there. Tony blinked at him but didn’t give any indication of his understanding.

Which was just as well, because then the man asked something where Tony didn’t understand _any_ of the words, and there were a decent amount of them.

Then, “ – able – understand – ?”

Tony tilted his head curiously. Was the human asking if he understood him? That was new. It showed a care that Tony wouldn’t expect from humans – especially from humans complicit in his injury and capture. Why would the humans care whether or not they would be understood to someone who was no more than a creature to them?

The man watched him for a moment, a thoughtful frown on his face. He bit his lip, and Tony’s eyes unwillingly tracked the motion before looking back up at the man’s eyes. They were pretty eyes.

After a moment, the man turned away, and after a short comment to the healer he went out the door.

Tony blinked at the door, and then looked at the healer, but the human didn’t provide any explanation for the other man’s departure, let alone one that Tony wouldn’t be able to understand.

He didn’t have to wonder too long at it though, because it was only a few minutes before the pretty man came back, accompanied by a man just as pretty, though his hair was light. Gazing at the clothes they were wearing, Tony was pretty sure the man was of a higher rank than the others. It only caused more wariness though, because the ones in charge were the ones who wanted to keep him here, and he didn’t know if this blond was going to be just as secretly cruel as the only other blond he had seen before.

The blond was carrying what looked like a small book, though this one was not nearly so damaged as the waterlogged books falling apart in the shipwrecks he’d seen before.

The man stared at him with undisguised fascination, and Tony braced himself for – something. He didn’t know what. Pain, he supposed. He didn’t know what these humans wanted from him. It was surely no coincidence that he had only seen two humans since waking up, and now that number had doubled in just a few minutes.

The blond seemed to start slightly before he sent him a look of – apology? – and then sat on the ground in front of the tank, opening his book in his lap. Tony blinked and looked down at him, because if he didn’t know any better he would think that the human was trying to put him at ease by putting himself on the ground, where Tony would be well warned by any sudden movements. He was – making himself vulnerable, Tony realized, and on the heels of that realization was relief that this man probably didn’t mean him any harm.

He also looked kind, like the healer did and unlike the Commodore, so perhaps Tony could let down his guard a little.

The man had a stick of something black in his hand, and he swiped it across the paper in his lap. Tony quickly deduced that it was a writing utensil, and wondered what it was made of that it left such clean, sharp lines in the paper.

It was a few moments of the man making small movements across the paper, and then he was setting the black stick aside and holding it up to show Tony. Tony propped himself against the side of the tank, the arm on his uninjured side holding him up where it sat along the top of the tank. It pulled at the wound a bit, but it wasn’t too painful.

Tony squinted at the drawing, seeing that it was a very accurate likeness to himself – of course, it would have to be, with that tail. In the drawing, there was a box surrounding him on all sides, which Tony was pretty sure was supposed to be the tank.

He looked back at the human on the ground, wondering why it was important to show this to him. Yes, he was aware that he was trapped in a tank. What was the point of telling him?

But the man apparently wasn’t done, and when he figured that Tony understood, he dropped the book back into his lap and started his drawing again.

This time he drew for longer, and when he held it up again, Tony could see why. He had drawn the faces of himself, the healer, the other brunette who was watching them communicate, the Commodore, and the man who had shot him. They were rough drawings, but easily identified. Tony bared his teeth at the last two in the drawing. The blond kept the book held up so Tony could see it while he circled the faces of the three in the room. Tony didn’t understand his reasoning for that until he watched as the blond slowed, drawing very deliberate X’s over first the Commodore and then the one who had shot him.

 _Oh._ Tony’s gaze darted to meet the blond’s. He was pretty sure the blond was saying that they weren’t on the Commodore’s side, and if that was the case, well…would they be able to help him get out of there?

The man flashed a quick smile when he saw that Tony understood, and then drew a quick facsimile of the ship and the water around it. He drew it in such a way that the image of Tony in the tank was within the ship. Then he pointed at the image of Tony, and then tapped the water.

Immediately Tony grinned, because he was _right_. They were going to try to get him out! He pulled himself up from the water, expecting help out of the tank so that he could get out, but then they were all making motions with their hands and talking in placating tones, clearly trying to keep him in the water.

Tony subsided, looking at them in confusion. Why couldn’t he leave now? Sure, he would need help to walk out with the wound in his side making things difficult, but there was no reason to stay in the tank if he had allies here.

The blond rose to his feet, but Tony didn’t shy away, more confused than scared now and trusting that the human wasn’t going to hurt him. The blond drew a couple of quick shapes on the page, and Tony quickly deduced that it was a moon and a sun. (The first was a crescent, and the sun didn’t do that.)

The man tapped the moon, and then made a broad gesture to the area around them. Then he pointed to the sun, before drawing another moon like the first. He tapped the second moon with his finger, and then pointed at the water.

Tony sighed, unfortunately understanding that they weren’t busting him out of there that night, but the following night.

That was fine, he supposed. At least he knew he wasn’t going to be the humans’ prisoner forever.

***

Tony counted to keep track of the passage of time for the rest of the night. Somehow, it made the time seem to pass all the more slowly, but there was no light that crept into the room to tell him anything else, so he made do.

During the day though, there were more sounds from the humans on board the ship. They were all awake then, rather than just the few needed to keep the ship running at night. He stopped his counting when it was loud enough outside the room to tell him reliably that it was daylight hours. He just had to wait for it to begin to quiet down again, and that would be when he could be free.

But, it was still loud when someone came into the room, and it wasn’t someone that Tony recognized. The man was small – smaller even than the healer, who had left some time ago, probably for one of his usual daily meals. This man had a singular piece of glass over one eye, and those eyes looked just as unkind as the Commodore’s. If that wasn’t enough to convince him that this guy was bad news, he was followed by two other men, one of which was the one who had shot him in the first place and was looking at him _hungrily_.

Tony backed as much away from them as they could, which in the tank wasn’t far at all. The short man said something to the strong-looking ones, and they swiftly pulled him away from the far edge of the tank, trying to remove him from the tank. Tony thrashed and yelled, and because he was in the air it sounded like screeches as he fought to stay in the tank. He was stronger in the water, and he didn’t know what the men were going to do to him. Seeing as he was a water creature, needing him out of the water only spelled bad things for his immediate future.

He was able to claw his fingers down the face of the man who had shot him in the first place, and was vindictively pleased when the man yelled in pain, blood dripping down his face.

But then the small man was suddenly in front of him, and with the other two holding his arms he was able to jab something small but sharp and _painful_ into his chest, right next to the wound that had split open in his thrashing and was quickly muddying the water around him. He screeched at it, and it probably hurt more because it was so close to the wound.

Whatever he had done with the jab, it was making his head go fuzzy and his limbs feel weak, and it only caused the panic to rise in him because now it was harder to fight.

Through the haziness, he was barely aware of the door, which had been left open slightly, opening just a bit more, but he saw when a head poked around the side. Tony could see that he was just barely no longer a guppy, his face still young and dark hair curly against his head. His eyes were wide as he took in the scene in front of him, eyes darting between them all. He made eye contact very briefly with Tony, and his eyes widened impossibly further before his head disappeared from the doorway as he ran away.

Tony screeched again as they were finally able to yank him from the tank, none too gentle about it as they dragged him toward the table where the healer had treated him before. Tony was fairly certain that there wasn’t going to be any _healing_ going on with these three there.

He hadn’t expected the change to happen yet, because usually he had to dry off for longer on land than this, but he supposed that he had become very dehydrated due to keeping half of his body above the water for so long, using his lungs to breathe rather than his gills.

The change was quick, but more painful than usual with the wound as his ribs shifted and grew as his internal organs shifted to accommodate the human form. He was distantly pleased to discover that he had been right that form affected his understanding of the human language, because immediately he understood when the three began shouting around him where it had been difficult – if not impossible – before.

“What the hell?!” the one he’d scratched shouted, grip impossibly tightening around his wrist and his bicep. Tony yelled in pain at it, and this time his human form made it sound like a human yell rather than the screech meant to be softened by water.

“Just get him on the damn table – he’s still a mermaid,” the other one snapped, jerking him with renewed strength toward the table.

 _Mer **man** , _Tony corrected mentally, kicking out with feet and legs still. His muscles were definitely weaker in this form, but he had never noticed it as much as he did now that it was much easier for the humans to toss him on the table like he was nothing more than an annoyingly persistent fish that he wanted for dinner.

For a few moments, the table gave him leverage to shove off of, but then the one who had called him a mermaid moved to grab his legs, resting the upper half of his body weight across them to keep them down while the other wrapped thick rope around the wrist in his own grasp. But now Tony’s other hand was free, and he grasped blindly around for a weapon, finally finding something square-shaped and hard underneath the table he was on.

Not pausing to see exactly what it was, he swung it up and over, cracking the human in the skull so hard he was instantly limp, collapsing to the ground without a sound.

Foolishly, the one at his legs slackened his grip in surprise, giving enough give that Tony could sit up and swing what he now saw was some sort of metal basket with bandages inside at his head. He didn’t have as much force behind this one though, and it only stunned the man long enough for Tony to land on his feet beside the table.

But the smaller man was of more concern, because he had another sharpthing pointed at him as he came closer, and Tony briefly felt grateful that his change into human form had burned through whatever was in the sharpthing, before he swung his makeshift weapon at first the hand holding the sharpthing and then at his face. The sharpthing was dropped, and although the hit to the face only caused the man to stumble backward, he lost his balance on some of the supplies that had dropped to the ground and fell hard enough into the table that he passed out anyway, so Tony counted it as a win.

The remaining man had recovered enough that now he wrapped strong arms around Tony’s slighter form, immobilizing his own arms at his sides.

Briefly panicking, Tony turned his head down enough that he was able to fasten his teeth around one arm, and he bit down _hard_. The man yelled in pain, grip slackening, and Tony spun, jabbing an elbow into the man’s softer midsection that was unprotected by ribs. To finish it off, he used the metal basket a final time to smack into his face. He heard a crunch of a nose breaking, and then the man was slumping to the ground.

Tony looked speculatively at the metal, dark with a bit of rust in the corner. It had barely dented – it was very sturdy.

He tossed it aside a moment later though, because he didn’t need it anymore, with the three humans out for the count. He was pretty sure that the first one he’d hit was dead, and couldn’t manage to feel any remorse for that fact – not that he tried. He then noticed that the sounds above him had changed from the normal daily shouts, to ones of fighting with the clanging of metal filling the air. Hopefully he would be able to escape amidst the noise.

He moved toward the healer’s area, which had a cot that the man had been sleeping on for the past few days that Tony was pretty sure was a temporary situation. Below the cot was a small bag with some clothes inside, which Tony hastened to pull on. He didn’t want anyone to recognize that he was too out of place, and that would definitely happen if he sprinted nude through the ship on his way into the water.

It was as he was tying the collar of the slightly discolored white shirt together that the door swung open and someone came bursting in. Tony froze for an instant, expecting another enemy, before he recognized the brunette from the night before – one of the ones who had said he was going to try and get him into the water that night.

The brunette turned and noticed him just after Tony realized who it was, and for a brief moment he tensed, on guard, before his eyes shot wide with surprise.

“Red?” he asked, his eyes trailing down, taking in his legs, the fact that he was standing.

“It’s Tony,” Tony corrected automatically, deducing quickly that that’s what they must have named him, with his bright red tail. Not too creative, but at least they’d _named_ him. It showed that they saw him as more than just an animal, and that more than anything is what proved that they were genuinely good people.

“You understand English?” the brunette demanded, looking even more surprised.

“When I’m in this form it’s better,” Tony explained.

“Lieutenant,” someone said breathlessly, and a moment later the young human he’d seen before appeared in the room. “Captain needs you as soon as you’re done with them. Commodore Pierce kept more on his side than we expected.” Then his eyes went to Tony, and he caught on even faster to who he was than the brunette had, and his expression immediately went delighted.

“Whoa, you can change your forms?” he asked, though it wasn’t really a question. “That’s so cool!”

“Okay, Peter, looks like Tony dealt with them, so you help him to the water without letting anyone else catch on,” the brunette directed the younger man.

The guppy – Peter – saluted immediately. “You got it, Bucky. Er – Lieutenant.”

“Don’t think titles will much matter, after this,” Bucky said grimly. After a last glance at Tony, he ran from the room, feet pounding heavily over the wood as he went up the stairs.

“Come on,” Peter directed, waving him over to the door. “I don’t think the people on the Commodore’s side know why Captain Rogers is leading a revolt, but we don’t want to risk them realizing it’s to free you before your escape is unstoppable.”

“Thank you,” Tony said, following after Peter quickly. “All of you, who are revolting.”

“It’s not right to capture prisoners when they’re not even an enemy,” Peter said staunchly. “Plus, the Commodore and the officers closest to him are corrupt; we knew that already. This was just the last straw before the fight.”

“Thank you for alerting them, earlier,” Tony said, remembering how Peter had run away and only minutes later the fighting had broken out above him. It was pretty clear who was responsible then. Peter shrugged, not saying anything to that.

The light was bright, when they got to the deck of the ship, and Tony squinted, it taking longer to adjust after several days in the dimness of the windowless cabin below.

The fight was amazing and bloody, swords flying between both sides. The blond – Captain Rogers, he guessed – and Bucky were fighting side by side against the Commodore. Tony was pretty sure the Commodore was losing, but he was just good enough that it was happening slowly.

 _Good_ , Tony thought vindictively.

“Just run for the edge and dive over,” Peter directed lowly. “They’ll think you’re just an officer abandoning ship. We’ll deal with the rest of this. Probably get _far_ away as fast as you can, because all the blood is going to attract sharks to the area for a bit.”

Tony nodded once, shortly. “Thank you,” he said once again, and then did as Peter directed, running over to the edge, climbing up and then making a clean dive into the water.

He shifted quickly into mer form, immeasurably relieved when his gills opened for the first time in over a week and he took in oxygen by water once again. He faintly tasted the blood from the humans who had already fallen into the water, but in the wide ocean it was much more diluted and not nearly so poisonous.

He knew what Peter had said was true, that the bodies were shark bait and he should get away while he could, but he wanted to make sure that the ones who had helped him were safe before he just turned tail and swam.

So, he swam to the underside of the ship, where the humans wouldn’t see him if they happened to remember him amidst the revolt, but where the dead humans tossed over the side of the ship would be the first ones sharks discovered, thus shielding Tony for at least a little bit.

He didn’t know how long he stayed there in place under the ship, but it was long enough that it was clear when one side began slaughtering the other much more easily, bodies appearing in the water with more frequency. When Tony recognized the Commodore’s body sinking below, he grinned fiercely to himself, glad that the Captain’s side was the one that was winning.

He was about to swim away, assured that the side he was rooting for was coming out on top and would be fine, when another body fell into the water in front of him, but this was one that he did _not_ want to see sinking in the depths of the ocean.

It was Bucky, and blood was streaming from his shoulder at an alarming rate. His face was pale, scrunched in pain but quickly slackening as his eyes fluttered shut. A bubble of air burst past his lips.

Tony didn’t know what he could do, but he did know that he couldn’t let this human die. He had been kind, had saved him when he had no obligation to do so. He was _good_.

He moved forward quickly, wincing at the pull the wound in his side gave at the movement, but otherwise ignoring it, shoving it aside to worry about later.

He wrapped an arm around the man’s chest, propping him against his uninjured side and then swimming upwards quickly to the surface.

Bucky didn’t wake up, but his body was still working on autopilot enough that he coughed, and the water he’d breathed in was pressed from his lungs. His body was limp, head hanging so it was half-rested on his own head, but in the water Tony was much stronger and it wasn’t much of a struggle to keep him above water.

The fighting was dying down above him – heh, no pun intended – but Tony wasn’t sure how to get Bucky back onto the ship when the man was unconscious.

But then he saw smaller boats strapped to the side of the ship, and one of them had been let down by deserters but not separated from the ship before they had been killed by what looked like sticks with feather-looking things at the end, sticking out of their chests. Tony swam quickly for that one, shoving one of the men out of it and into the water. It wasn’t hard, because he’d been half bent over the side anyway, but it did cause his wound to throb in protest to the movement. He ignored it and copied the movement with the other man, before taking a deep breath to brace himself before heaving Bucky into the small boat. A screech was ripped from his throat at the pain this caused, certainly as painful as when he’d first been shot. But, he was successful in getting Bucky in, and he bit his lip worriedly at the blood still spilling from Bucky’s shoulder. He didn’t want to see how bad that wound must be underneath the shirt – the amount of blood didn’t spell anything good.

“Bucky!”

Tony’s head shot up when he heard the panicked call, but relaxed a bit when he saw that it was Captain Rogers, the one who had first explained that they were going to get him back into the water.

“He’s still alive!” Tony called instinctively, but then mentally rolled his eyes at himself when it came out sounding like a screech and not at all like human language. The Captain wouldn’t understand what he had said. Sure enough, the Captain didn’t look assured at all, and called something to Tony that he didn’t understand.

So, figuring action was the only thing that would help then, he reached for the rope that would move the small boat up. The Captain immediately caught on to what he was doing and helped raise it from his side.

The healer who had helped Tony appeared immediately beside Steve, he and another large blond man pulling Bucky from the boat, and Tony deduced that the fighting was over by the lack of clanging swords.

The Captain looked back at Tony, still looking worried for Bucky but also relieved to discover that he was still alive. He called something that Tony figured must be thanks based on the short length of the statement, and Tony just waved back in acknowledgement, before slipping under the water.

Minutes later, he was gone from the area entirely.

***

In his stronger mer form, Tony recovered from the wound the human had inflicted fairly quickly. Still though, it was a while before he went closer to the surface again, first because when Rhodey found out what had happened he practically locked him up to keep him from going, and then because Tony didn’t much feel like exploring. He mostly just wanted to see the ones who had saved him again, but he had no idea where they were or where to begin looking, so he just…didn’t.

It had been more than a year since his capture and subsequent release when he first began to hear the rumors. Well, “rumors” was a fairly strong word for it. It was a couple of passing comments, about a human vessel with a mermaid painted along the side. No one Tony asked directly though had seen it in person, and didn’t know of any more details than that.

It was Natasha who saw his interest in the comments, and took it upon herself to find out more. She didn’t tell Tony this until she came to him with her findings though.

And then, it was a simple, “It’s you.”

“What?” Tony asked, not knowing what she was talking about.

“The mer, painted on the side of the human ship,” she said. “It’s you. It’s not a mermaid – it’s a mer _man_ , with dark hair and a red and gold tail.”

“It’s…it’s me,” Tony repeated dumbly.

“Guess you inspired them,” Natasha said, shrugging with affected casualness. “Or maybe they’re looking for you.”

“You really think it’s them?” Tony asked hopefully. Natasha, Pepper, and Rhodey were the only ones who knew what had happened the year before, with all details involved. They knew quite well how much Tony ~~crushed on~~ admired them.

Natasha smirked at him. “Only one way to find out.”

***

Tony knew that it was the same ship as soon as he saw it. He had reflected on it many times and if he was half as good of an artist as Captain Rogers he would be able to draw it perfectly. Since he wasn’t, he had to content himself with his memories of it.

It looked different now, though. More…broken down wasn’t right, but it definitely looked older than the last time he had seen it. It had been through a few more storms. He wasn’t close enough to be certain, but he thought that the painting which he could see was definitely himself on the side of the ship was chipping a bit.

“How did you even find it?” Tony asked, staring at it with just the top of his head poking out of the water, ears and mouth underneath so that they could still understand each other. “And how did you know it would be here when we came back?”

He could hear the smirk in her voice when she spoke. “I have my ways.”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it – you’re freakishly good at everything,” Rhodey complained good-naturedly. He was completely under the water, along with Pepper at his side, who had insisted on coming to make sure none of them did anything stupid, because they all had their own brand of it that when mixed became completely chaotic. 

Natasha hummed. “So? Do you want to go say hi?”

Tony blinked, and then nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “But I don’t really know how I’ll get up there.”

“Why do you think we came along?” Natasha said dryly.

“To enjoy the show,” Tony replied automatically.

Natasha laughed, and slipped back completely under the water. Tony followed her example a second later. “That’s true enough,” she said, “But I can have more than one reason for doing something. We can help you to your humans once we’re close enough.”

“Well, come on, then,” Pepper sighed. “No use waiting all day.”

***

It was an early morning, but Steve and Bucky had planned to enjoy it by themselves for a bit before joining the rest of the crew on deck. They slept in a bit – not much, but enough that by the time Bucky awakened the crew was going about their business already. And Bucky never liked to be left to himself for too long, so only a few minutes later Steve had awakened to wet heat around his cock, and for some time after that there were no words exchanged between them outside of praise and begging.

They were still cooling down when there came rapid and loud knocking on their door, and before either could respond the door was swinging open and Peter came stumbling inside.

“Cap’n,” Peter gasped for air like he’d been running, eyes wild. They might have been alarmed, but he looked more excited than scared. “You need to come upstairs.”

“What happened to waiting for someone to answer the door?” Bucky groaned. “A few moments earlier and you’d have seen way more of your Captain than you’d _ever_ want.”

Peter flushed, but otherwise didn’t react, and carefully didn’t look anywhere but at their faces. “I’ve walked in on you guys enough times that I’m pretty sure I’ve _already_ seen it all.”

“And yet you never learn,” Bucky pointed out, though he wasn’t really upset. Exasperated, but not upset.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asked before Peter could respond. “Why am I needed?”

“Both of you,” Peter corrected, eyes lighting up with joy as he remembered his reason for barging in. “Tony is back.”

Steve didn’t think he or Bucky had ever gotten dressed so fast.

Moments later, as they stepped into the sunlight on deck, Steve saw that Peter was right – not that he’d doubted him, but it seemed too amazing to be true without seeing it with his own eyes.

But right there, sitting on the side of the ship, along the railing with his tail trailing down and to the side, was the merman that had ignited the revolt that had led to Steve taking over the ship, becoming its Captain and taking half the crew along with him. This was the merman who had saved Bucky from certain death when Steve hadn’t noticed him fall into the water after what might have been a fatal stab wound had he not been found in time, and although Bucky had limited mobility in that arm now, he was alive and Steve was grateful for that every day. He had the merman to thank for that, and he would never forget that.

The wound in Tony’s side was healed, just a puckered scar now, and Steve was glad that there didn’t appear to be any lasting effects of his time in captivity.

Tony saw him then, and his expression lit up with a smile that caused the air to be punched from his lungs at the beauty of it. He’d known that Tony was beautiful before, but he’d never seen him smile and it just increased his beauty tenfold.

A moment later a dark-skinned hand appeared beside Tony, quickly followed by the rest of the man’s body as he hauled himself up to sit beside Tony. Steve had been briefly alarmed at the appearance of a stranger, but Tony was unconcerned and even helped the new mer stay balanced as he situated himself beside him.

The darker mer had a tail shimmering with blue and silver, contrasting starkly with his skin but not looking out of place. The mer looked up at Steve, and glared at him in what seemed almost like some kind of evaluation.

The two mers didn’t speak, and Steve figured that in these forms they wouldn’t understand each other out of the water either. Tony got the other mer’s attention, and then pointed at Bucky before smiling brightly. The darker mer looked at Bucky, giving him the same evaluating glare before he looked back at Tony and flicked his tail upward a bit, tilting his head.

After the evaluation was apparently over with, Bucky walked toward Tony, one hand extended in invitation.

“Hiya, Tony,” he said, grin firmly in place, and Steve easily recognized the flirtatious tone. (Sam apparently did too, because Steve heard him groan quietly from where he was watching from behind them, along with most of the rest of the crew.) Steve didn’t mind it though, because they had actually talked about this a few times in the past year and a half or so.

Tony accepted Bucky’s hand willingly and without hesitation, and Bucky’s grin only grew broader at the evidence of Tony’s lack of fear.

“You gonna change so we can understand each other?” Bucky asked, tilting his head. It was said without an ounce of demanding or expectation though, because he didn’t really want to assume anything, especially where Tony was concerned. It _was_ heartening though that he had returned, and had even brought along a friend. That couldn’t be a bad thing.

Tony tilted his head in response, clearly not understanding the question but apparently having the same thought when he looked down at his tail and flicked it slightly, looking expectant. He looked at the other mer, who just rolled his eyes and looked pointedly down at the water below them.

Steve wondered if maybe mers had to be dry to grow legs, that perhaps the change didn’t come at will. He supposed it made sense, and there was still water dripping down the end of Tony’s tail, though by now the sun had dried the water on his skin.

“That’s alright,” Bucky said, thoughts apparently running on the same track as Steve’s. “We’ll just wait here till we can understand each other.” Steve noticed that Bucky’s thumb was rubbing circles across Tony’s knuckles. He had a brief flare of jealousy, wanting to take Tony’s other hand, but he wasn’t sure of the dark-skinned mer and what he might do if he got between them to hold Tony, so he told himself that he could hold Tony’s hand later.

The mer was looking at him with clear amusement on his face, like he knew what Steve was thinking, and Steve decided he was as much a shithead as Bucky was when the mer didn’t make any attempt to either move or let on that he would be fine with Steve taking Tony’s hand.

It took several more minutes, but it didn’t feel too long with the nice view. Steve’s jealousy faded little by little, until finally he was just staring with adoration at Bucky and Tony, together and in front of him. He didn’t know if Tony even liked them back – unlikely, considering that none of them really knew each other – but he hoped that he would. He was pretty, and Bucky was pretty, and they looked so beautiful together that Steve itched to get his hands on his sketchbook and some charcoal to put to paper what he was seeing in front of him. Steve hoped that Tony showing up meant that he was open to more with them, that they weren’t just a couple of humans to him. Ones who had saved him from certain pain, sure, but still of a completely different species.

Most of the crew went back to their work as time passed, with Thor and Sam taking charge while Steve and Bucky were occupied. Only Peter and Clint continued to watch outright, and this was because Peter had the job of mending a couple of sails and actually had reason to sit and stare, only occasionally glancing down to be sure he was stitching where he was supposed to. Clint simply had always been overly curious, and didn’t try to hide it as he watched them.

Finally, Tony tightened his grip on Bucky’s hand, reaching out with the other one, which Bucky immediately took. A moment later, the tail split into legs, and Bucky steadied him as he regained his balance with the weight redistribution.

Getting off the railing, Tony stepped onto the deck, and beamed up at Bucky.

“Hi,” he greeted. “Sorry for the wait.”

It was unclear whether Tony was talking about his absence for the last year and a half since last seeing him, or for the change into human form, but it didn’t matter, really, because now that he was there, it seemed like no time at all and they really didn’t mind in the least.

Bucky grinned back at Tony and darted in to press a kiss to Tony’s cheek. “Not a problem, doll,” he drawled, and Tony flushed a little at the flirting, but looked very pleased.

“This is Rhodey,” Tony gestured to the other mer, who was still drying and looking at them all, unimpressed as ever. “He’s my best friend. He wanted to meet you guys.”

Steve thought that it was more likely that Rhodey had come as a bodyguard, but he didn’t mind. He would be wary too, were their situations reversed.

“So, are you staying here for a while?” Steve asked hopefully, taking a step forward.

Tony looked a little nervous and uncertain, and Bucky clearly noticed because he said boldly, “Me an’ Steve would like for you to.”

Tony blinked up at him. “You would?”

“Very much,” Steve nodded firmly when Tony’s eyes flicked to him. “You’re welcome to stay for as long as you like.”

“He _would_ like,” a new voice said, and Steve’s gaze darted over to Rhodey, who had apparently shifted to human form without them noticing, distracted as they were with Tony. He raised a single eyebrow and said dryly, “Thanks for holding my hands, by the way, to help me keep my balance when I changed and all.”

“I like Tony more than I like you,” Bucky said promptly and unashamedly. Rhodey turned to Bucky and raised an eyebrow, before letting out a short laugh and shaking his head.

“Well, at least I know it’s _Tony_ that you like and not just ‘cause he’s a merman,” he said.

“Rhodey worries,” Tony explained.

“And I damn well have reason to, don’t I?” Rhodey retorted without pause. “Anyway, have fun with your humans. Natasha will find you again, if you don’t find us first.” Then he looked straight at Steve, expression full of gravity. “Watch over him, alright?”

Steve nodded wordlessly, despite his brain trying to catch up as everything moved so quickly. Once he did catch up, he looked back at Tony hopefully. “You _are_ staying?”

“I figure I have more to learn about humans than just what I can observe from a distance,” Tony shrugged a little with a smile.

“You don’t need to learn about other humans – just us,” Bucky said teasingly, but with a beaming smile at Tony’s confirmation.

“I suppose you’re right,” Tony agreed, smile growing.

Rhodey groaned theatrically. “You guys are meant for each other,” he complained, climbing up onto the railing again.

“Bye, Rhodey,” Tony flicked his fingers in a small wave, affecting some kind of flirtatiousness that even Steve could tell he didn’t mean romantically.

Rhodey gave a little salute, and then dove into the water.

Tony turned to look over the edge of the ship, watching as Rhodey joined Pepper and Natasha in the water. He waved, and they waved back before swimming away.

Tony didn’t mind them leaving. He knew that they would be back. And until then…

He turned back to his humans – Bucky and Steve – and smiled hopefully at them. Assuming he wasn’t _completely_ unobservant, he was pretty sure that Bucky and Steve liked him the same way that he liked them. That knowledge made it easy to decide to stay on the ship for a bit, something he hadn’t been sure of even as he was helped onto the ship less than an hour beforehand. It gave him hope that maybe they could become something more than just a couple of humans and a merman they’d happened to save. Maybe they could learn to love each other, more than just a crush.

“So,” Tony said, taking Steve’s hand in his other one, because he had noticed that Steve wanted to hold his hand the same way he was still holding Bucky’s, and it was quite easy to accommodate for something he already wanted. Steve looked immediately pleased at the action, and Bucky was amused but pleased, too. Their hands were weathered and rough, and much larger than Tony’s own hands. They were warm, and he liked the weight of them in his grasp, like they wanted to hold onto him just as much as he wanted to hold onto them.

“So,” Bucky echoed, lightly prodding when Tony didn’t go on, distracted as he was by the simple act of holding their hands.

“So,” Tony said again, pulling his mind back to the conversation, and smiled at each of them in turn. “Tell me about yourselves.”

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was supposed to be like 1500 words, max. Whatever. I surpassed my goal, and that's never a bad thing. XD That last few hundred words though was just me trying to figure out how and where to end it and it just kept _going_. And finally, here we are.
> 
> Hope you liked it!


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